bikeman

Actually I'm just kidding, but my wife won a Huffy "comfort" bike at a church raffle. What a hoot! A garage full of a Litespeed Classic, 2 Cannondale Mountain bikes, a Cannondale Tandem, a Trek Single speed fixed-gear and there sits the NEW Huffy.

It seems totally out of place. What a massive thing it is too. Weighs a ton (has to be well over 45 lbs.), brakes are poorly set up of course and the rear rim is very out of true. Also the rear hub is making strange noises. I think it is really sad that people actually buy these things! They give it a nice grey metallic paint job, fat seat, fat semi-slicks, swept back handlebars and sell it every joe-schmo that thinks he/she needs a little exercise. I actually tried to adjust a few things and the parts are total crap. I think we are going to give it away to some friends that have lots of kids and they can abuse the hell out of it and pass it down through the ages if it lasts that long.

I'll feel bad though giving someone a bike of such low quality. I may turn off a whole new generation of children from cycling when they grow to hate the bike. It will probably end up in the trash in a few years, rusted, broken and deservedly disposed of. What to do??

khuon

As a kid, I grew up with those things. That said, I do not wish such poor-quality bikes on anyone. The rims and brakes alone were dangerous. If you give it to someone, make sure they promise never to ride it in the rain, never ride it down any hills, never ride it offroad, never exceed a fast walking speed (actually go ahead and slap a label that says "Vne: 10MPH"), never take it to a bike shop for a repair and as soon as the very first things breaks on it, to dispose of it immediately.

es_seattle

Sounds like your stable is missing a Fool's Parade Bike! Glue some fake fur on it, a few air horns, pinwheels, spoke beads; think Quadrophenia and see if you can get it up to 60 pounds. Well, that's what I'd do, anyway.

bikeman

What a cool idea! I may have to work on that.

deliriou5

maybe you could give the bike away with a well-communicated disclaimer about your opinion of cheapo bikes. just make sure they promise not to ride it for more than 10 minutes at a time LOL. my grandfather rides around on his old roadmaster all the time. but he never rides it for more than 2 miles at a time, and he probably rides at something like 8 miles an hour. for short slow trips, the amount of time you spend on the bike is too short to be THAT uncomfortable.

1oldRoadie

OR you could "donate" it back to the church (i.e. tax deduction) and they could raffle it off again.

Matadon

The sad thing is, the church-in-question probably thought they were giving out something really spanky as a raffle prize.

KennethToronto

On the topic of cheap bikes, not everyone is willing or is able to spend a couple thousand for a bike. I'm sure if we could all afford it, cheap bikes wouldn't exist and we'd all ride really nice road bikes - but unfortunately, reality prevents that from happening.

That 45lb Huffy is probably sufficient for a majority of the cyclists and their rides around the block. Heck, I still have my cheapo 5 speed neon bike that I rode around when I was 7 and it didn't turn me off to biking.

That said, I'll be buying a 2003 Tuscany in a few months...so yea, I like quality bikes too

Matadon

It's not even a matter of a thousand-dollar-plus roadbike; Performance Bike sells quite decent low-end mountain bikes in the $200-$400 range, and they come with lifetime maintenance. Considering how badly that $150 - $200 X-mart bike is going to be handling after a few months, spending the extra $50 to $100 and getting free derailleur tweaks for life sounds worth it to me...

psycholist

easy there, bikeman-- old sentiment dies hard! My first ride was a speckled-up Wally-World Huffy with howling brakes and a saddle that rode like an overstuffed patio chair. It's a wonder I never had any tail-end friction fires. Nevertheless, I put over 10,000 miles on that POS and still had a blast. Owning and riding a monster like that only makes you appreciate a quality bike that much more when you finally get there.
I still have that scary old thing sitting out in the garage and ready to go for some kid to ride...did you actually think I would let them get on one of my TREKS?!?



Sell the gimpy church wheels (sinners have more fun, after all) and use the bucks to ACCESSORIZE!

tFUnK

im pretty sure none of us started getting into the world of biking riding on some $1000+ bikes...

but your situation is indeed very sad, maybe it'll make some kid's day, though

bikeman

I cleaned out the garage this weekend after I had a new roof put on and had to move the new Huffy again into a temporary spot. Man it is really heavy. I think I hurt myself. True a bike is a bike and we all have to start riding something and 99% of the population would think this bike a great way to start. If we do give to the family down the street it will make a great many children happy since they have a huge brood with ages 15 down to tiny tots. (Haven't heard of birth control apparantly). Nice folks and could really use a helping hand with keeping the kids happy. I think I'll do it.

pinerider

A very noble gesture - charity begins in the neighborhood! Sounds like the ideal solution to your problem!!

Inkwolf

My previous bike was a Huffy. I was happy enough with it, and it was good enough to be listed in a bike-buying guide as the lowest-end best choice for the year. I put lots of miles on it and had a good time. I'm sure any kid would be happy to have a decent Huffy, unless they were already spoiled by knowing how a good bike rides. (And there ARE worse bikes out there than Huffies! They just get the most bad press because there are more of them out there.)


That having been said, I met someone on my caming trip who was riding a Walgoose $150 dual-suspension mountain bike around the camping trails. He said it was a good deal and a great bike. That was before he started worrying about the pieces that were falling off....

khuon

I had a Huffy when I was a kid. Actually it had a pretty tough frame. It was very heavy though. The components were crap and threatened to fail all the time. I would ride a few miles and then spend 5 minutes readjusting everything so I could do things like shift and brake or clear the brake-drag. This is why I cdnsider them dangerous. OTOH, I happened to glance at a few dept. store bikes while at Target the other day and noticed that some of the frames had incomplete welds. This worries me since as a kid I think I abused my bikes more than as an adult and having a frame failure while jumping my bike off the parent's deck would sure have ruined my whole day. I'm sure that kids these days aren't going to be much tamer on their bikes.